Bane's struggle
by WedgePalmer
Summary: I really liked Obsidian thirteen's story and was kinda inspired to create my own. This is my first ever official fanfic.I hope it does not look as though i have copied because i haven't. Please enjoy and tell me what you think.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Bane Pulled his axe out of the hard, brown, martian rock. The Intercom piped up.

_"Second workshift has ended. Miner shift 1 return to barraks" _It grated in that cold, calm voice

Bane sighed and dropped his pick. He walked down the roughly hewn corridoor and into the large room beyond. He noticed four guards were standing with their backs to him. Around him, other miners were emerging from the other tunnels, and also looking at the guards. Bane strode forward to see what all the fuss was about. He was Horrified to see that it was a miner.

The plague had been happening for months, Most of Bane's friends were dead from it, or from the guards abuse. They seemed to take delight at watching the Miners hack at stone all day and beating any that happened to stop for a break. The poor conditions were bringing unrest. Some miners had actually attacked guards. But all were caught and were taken to solitary confinement. No-one ever saw them again. There were even rumours of a rebel group called the Red Faction who were stockpiling weapons for the rumoured reveloution.

The miner was infected with the plague, that much was obvious. Bane knew that face. It was Mon, his friend fom earth. Together, they had set off to build themselves a new life in the Mars mining colony. He stepped forward to help his sick friend, but a guard stood in his way. It was a seargant.

"Stand back mine scum" He said, smirking "wouldn't want you getting infected!"

His buddies laughed.

"But he's sick! he needs medical attention!" Bane exclaimed. The guard did not move except to transfer his hand to the pistol strapped to his leg.

"Oh, and what are you gonna do about it?" He growled. Bane could only watch helplessly as the twitching form of Mon was carried away by one of the guards.

At that moment, the intercom crackled into life. All three guards and the eight miners were distracted from the cruelty from what blasted from the speakers.

_"Miners! This is Eos! Leader of the Red Faction!" _Snapped the female voice on the other end. _"The Revoloution is here! Strike back at the guards that have brought you so much pain! Remember every dead miner, every friend and fight for them! Miners in M4 have started the rebellion, but won't be able to keep it going without you! Find the Red Faction members among you and link up with us! We will make them suffer as they make us suffer-" _The voice was cut off by the computerised overseer voice:

_"All Miners are ordered to ignore the unortherised announcements." _It said feebly

All through the message, the guards had been staring up at the intercom, like it would change What they were hearing. When they looked down again, they saw the miners glaring at them, with something like animal fury. Everything happend at once. The Miners charged forward, the guards drew their Control Batons and all hell broke loose. Bane was afraid and angry at the same time. He Rugby tackled a guard, who hit his head on a rock and died, and took the man's control baton. He turned and saw one guard Smack a miner in the head with a baton, then kick him over. The guard turned and, charging his weapon, shocked another miner to death. With an angry cry, Bane Ran at the guard and killed him with a shock from the baton. He checked on how the battle was going.

All the Guards were down.

Apart from him, there were five miners left. Three had Control Batons, one had a pick axe and one had taken the seargant's handgun.

"Yo, my name's Lambert Stick with me!" Said the Miner with the pistol "I'm headin for the Docking bay, if we can reach it, I'm gonna steal a shuttle and head back to Earth"

They all agreed, and headed for the door. Suddenly, the intercom barked out.

_"Warning, disturbance in mine M3 sector 3. Code Blue Alert. Any nearby guards proceed to sector three immediatly!" _With that, an alarm started whining.

Almost immediately, the door slid open and three guards walked in. Lambert snapped off a shot, sending a guard tumbling backwards. One of the other ones tugged a pistol out and shot Lambert through the heart.

"Lambert, NO!" Shouted the miner with the Pick Axe. He ran to his fallen friend and was shot too. The guard with the pistol heard a high pitched whining noise and turned to see his comrade lying on the ground, dead, and Bane running at him, brandishing a charged up Control Baton. The baton struck the guard round the head, connecting with a nerve cluster. Bane looked down at him. He was either unconceous, or dead. He was surprised to find that he didn't care which. He had never killed a man before, but three years of cruelty made them seem more like monsters. He went back to the other three miners, pausing to pick up the fallen pistol and a couple of clips for it.

The three miners that were left were an odd bunch, but after they introduced themselves, Bane found himself more comfortable with their presence. Biggs was a lankey man of about 25. Jessie was a tired looking young woman of 20 and Wedge was a podgey man of the same age. Biggs raided the guards' pockets and also found a Pistol. and Jessie still had 3 remote mining charges left. Wedge helped Biggs check the guards and found A couple of field Medi-kits. They opened the door and saw a miner standing at the other end of the passage. At the sound of the door opening, the spun round, raising his pistol. When he saw it was more miners, he lowered his weapon and sighed with relief.

"Hi there! A group of miners is heading up to the Docking bay, to steal a shuttle." He said " I was left here to check for survivors of the battle, then follow on after the others."

"Where are they now?" Asked Wedge

"Up at the entrance to the Guard checkpoint, Come on, follow me!" He replied. The miner set off at a run towards the door that he'd been watching. They followed him and on the other side of the door, they came to a lift.

As they travelled upwards, they came under fire from two guards, higher up at one of the doorways. Jessie threw a remote charge up. It stuck to one of the guards. She detonated it, illuminating the shaft with a shower of flame and rubble. When the lift stopped at the door, a moment later, they saw that the actual door, along with a generous section of the wall, was gone. They entered cautiously, Weapons raised. It was another coridoor. There was another door at the other end. There were several figures crouched in front of it. Biggs was jumpy and looked like he would fire, but then he saw that they were dressed in red, miners envirosuits and he calmed down. There were Five of them, all with their guns out. As our hero's approached, they spun around, racking their pistols. One of them, apparantly the leader, seemed to recognise the miner that had guided them here.

"Oh hi Jeff, found some survivors, I see." Said the leader.

"Yeah, How is the checkpoint?" Asked the miner. The leader grimaced.

"They sealed this door. We can't get it open." He admitted.

Jessie Grinned and stepped forward, holding a mining charge.

"I can open it" She said. Everyone stood back as Jessie planted the charge. Then she pressed the remote control and the door exploded. Immediately, an allarm started whining.

_"Warning, Miners entering Checkpoint area, All local guards proceed to this area! Code Orange emergency!"_ Squarked the Intercom.

Shots came through, before the smoke had even cleared. One of the miners colapsed as he was hit multiple times. Another was thrown backwards as a powerful weapon fired. Jessie and Wedge scooped up the dropped handguns and joined the fight. Bane ran to the door, fired twice, then sprinted into the room. The other miners followed.

Inside, he found himself in a large Cavern. It was split in the middle by a concrete wall. This Wall had a large Energy-gate set into it. This gate would stop miners, but could be deactivated from the control room next to it.

There were four hostiles in the room. Three had pistols and one was holding a shotgun. Bane fired and knocked one over. The Shotgun-wielding man fired back, killing two of the other miners with one shot. Biggs shot the man with the shotgun and one of the guards threw down his gun and legged it towards the energy-gate. The One remaining guard, who was wearing an officer's Cap, turned and shot the deserter in the back. He was instantly shot by Biggs, Bane, and the Leader of the squad of miners, all at the same time.

They had just stopped to catch their breath, when a shot rang out, striking the Miner called Jeff in the head. The Team whirled and saw a trio of guards marching through a small door set beside the one they had entered through. They fired again, hitting the last remaining member of the squad with a triple-shot. Bane fired until he was out of ammo for his pistol, then dived and scooped up the fallen Riot-Shotgun. He fired, killing two of the guards. The final one dropped his pistol and raised his hands.

"What should we do with him?" Asked Biggs.

"I say we kill him too!" Growled Jessie

"No, let's lock him in the office that they were hiding in." Said Bane. So they tied his hands together and shoved him into the office. They then shut the door, pressed lock on the control pannel and Smashed it so he couldn't get out. Then they Studied the Energy gate.

"I can open it" Said Jessie "Just give me a moment". She dissapeared into the Control room beside the Gate. A moment later, it vanished with a rush of air and a sizzling noise. They pressed on, stopping only to pilfer some ammo from the dead guards.

On the other side of the gate, There was a door. It led onto a narrow steel walkway above a small underground lake. Another, similar walkway crossed the chasam a few metres above their heads. Floating in the water below were two dead miners and a dead guard. Bane looked up from the lake to see that the others were already half way across the bridge.

"Hey, wait up guys!" He Shouted. Wedge turned and opened his mouth to shout something back, but before he could speak, a bullet pinged off the bridge in front of him. Another bullet ricocheted off one of the support cables nearby. The little group looked up and saw several guards gathered on the walkway above. They all started firing down at the four miners. There was nowhere to take cover, so they unhooked their guns and began to return fire. The guards were all firing now, but they weren't hitting anyone. To Bane, it seemed that they were missing on purpose...

Then a bullet hammered into the support cable to Bane's Right. Another hit the cabe to his left. About a Metre of Bridge colapsed. Bane went tumbling into the water and the others began to move towards the door behind them on their side of the bridge. A shot from Biggs sent one of the guards staggering backwards and knocking one of his comrades off the bridge. The two guards that were left, fired a last shot each, then retreated through a door at one end of their bridge.

Biggs leaned over and looked down at Bane.

"You okay?" He shouted down.

"Yeah, just a bit brused, I did a belly-flop" replied Bane.

"Well, we can't reach far enough to pull you up. Try and find another way up"

"Yeah, you guys keep going! Try and get to the Docking bay, I'll meet you later" Bane spluttered. Biggs nodded, then there was a clattering of feet as they crossed the bridge, then the pnumatic hiss of a door opening. Bane looked around himself, tredding water. To his left, there was a large hole on the wall, just above water level. He retreved his shotgun and hung it over his shoulder. Then he swam over to the hole and hauled himself up and in.

To his surprise, it was well lit and led off, sloaping up slightly. There had been fighting here, recently too. Bane found a small stain of blood on a wall. It was still wet. A metre away, Bane saw the body of a miner sprawled on the floor. He took the ammo from the miner's Pistol and continued up the tunnel. The signs of battle became more obvious. Two dead guards lay on the floor and the rocky wall was dotted with bullet-holes. Finally, he came to a door. There was the sound of gunfire on the other side. Bane drew his pistol and pressed the open button.

The door slid open to reveal a battle that was well underway. Two dead miners lay on the floor. He could see four miners firing at five guards. The Miners were fighting bravely but they were inexperianced at combat, and the guards were using the cover well, showing for just enough time to take a shot, Then ducking down again.

As he watched, another miner cried out and toppled backwards, two bullet-holes in his chest. Another miner hesitated, glancing down at his dead pal, then he was hit too.

Bane raised his Handgun, waited, then fired, sending a guard crumpling back. Another one stood to fire, and was also hit. The other three began to retreat to the ladder that they had been defending. One was shot as he broke cover. Another was hit when the remaining two reached the laddder. The last one was shot and fell off the ladder, from halfway up.

The remaining miners turned to him, hulstering their pistols.

"Thank you" Said the first "I'm Cecil, This is Barry. We were heading up to find the Hanger, so that we could escape Mars and go back to Earth."

"I'm Bane, I'm going there too." Replied Bane.

"Great, this ladder is a maintenance hatch. It leads into the lift shaft. The lift has been locked in place, at the top, so we were heading out to climb the shaft. " He said, enthusiastically.

"Yeah, stay with us, we got ambushed by those guards, and we could do with another person here." Interjected Barry.

"Sounds cool, count me in" Smiled Bane.

They pushed the hatch open and climbed out into the bottom of the lift shaft. They were cautious, expecting another ambush, but the area was clear of hostiles. As they approached the thick-runged emergency ladder that ran all the way up to the top of the shaft, The Intercom crackled into life.

_"Rioting in Sectors 2, 4 and 8 is out of control. All personel evacuate the area. I repeat, All personel, retreat to the Miner's barracks' and await further orders there. The mines will be sealed in twenty minutes" _It said, calmly.

"Damn! We've gotta get up to the Barraks' in Twenty minutes." Growled Barry. They all took hold of the ladder and began to climb. Cecil went first, then Bane, then Barry.

They got about half way up, 100 metres, when a shot split the silence. Every twenty metres, there was a ledge that ran around the perimiter of the shaft where workers could rest and get their breath back, before continuing the climb. On one such ledge, a guard knelt. He fired his pistol again, narrowly missing Bane, who swung aside to dodge the shot. Barry fired his pistol and hit the guard, who fell from the ledge and went tumbling down until he was out of sight. They continued up, until, suddenly, another shot rang out. Cecil screamed as the bullet hit him in the left hand. He let go of the ladder and fell. Luckily Barry caught him by his right wrist. Another shot pinged off the ladder above Bane, who snapped back to the situation in hand. He drew his pistol and looked up. He could see a burly Guard standing above on another ledge, his pistol gripped in both hands. Bane took aim, but a shot from another gun hit the guard instead. There was a faint _PHUT-PHUT _and the guard collapsed. Bane saw that there was a door on the ledge. A man wearing a Miner's Envirosuit stood in the doorway, a silenced pistol in each hand.

"Hello down there! I'm from the Red Faction! Need a hand?"

A few minutes later, they all stood in the room behind the doorway. It was a store-room with crates and boxes strewn around randomly. Stamped on each was the 'Ultor mining Courp' logo. There was a ladder at one end of the room and a door (the one they had entered through) at the other.

"We can't stay here for long, the clock is ticking" Said The Red-faction soldier. "This ladder comes up near the Miner's Barraks, just in front of the Guard station."

"Okay, let's move on" agreed Bane. He checked his watch. They had about five minutes left before lockdown.

"How are you feeling, Cecil?" Asked Bane.

"Ok...The pain is mostly gone, except when I flex it" Said Cecil, faintly.

"Ok, we're moving out!" Said Bane, Racking his shotgun.

Bane pushed the hatch open and looked around. There was nobody about. He climbed out and helped the others up. This coridoor deemed to have seen a lot of fighting. There were Bodies everywhere. Bane was saddened to see that most of them were miners. But they couldn't be helped now. The party quickly checked for ammunition and medikits, then continued to the Guard Station. They opened the door and entered into a large cavern. There was a small Concrete building at the back of the room and a door next to it. A man dressed in riot armour looked round as they entered. When he saw that they were miners, he bellowed:

"Mine Scum! I thought you were all dead by now". He drew a control baton and charged at them. He held a big Riot shield in his other hand. The pistol shots of the others just pinged off the shield and hemet. Bane took aim and fired his shotgun. The Shield shattered. He fired again and again until the Riot-guard collapsed in a bullet-riddled heap. They swiftly checked the building and found a weapons locker. They broke it open and collected the shotguns and ammo inside.

They then exited the building and approached the door.

The door led into an airlock. These were used so that miners and guards could enter and exit the mines without loosing air for the rest of the complex. They stood inside and waited for the air to filter into the sealed room.

Then a light flashed green on the console beside the other door and the door slid open. They exited through the open door, removing their breathing helmets and fixing them to their belts as they went. Behind them, there was a pnumatic hiss, and a set of blast-doors that were half a metre thick closed in front of the airlock. The Red faction member sighed with relief.

"We made it"

"Well, not yet, we still have to get to the Docking bay" Said Bane, grumpily.

"Well we have some time now though."

They decided to take a quick look round the Miners Barracks and check for ammo and survivors. However, before they did anything, they needed to get Cecil to a doctor.

The Miners Barracks was a rectangle shaped steel room. There were 2 doors on their left, 2 door on their right and one large door at the other end. Bane took Cecil left to the medical bay. The medic took him into the bay and put him onto a steel bed, on the bed next to him was another miner who looked close to death, and on the other occupied bed was an unconcious Ultor guard, with a bullet hole in his blue envirosuit. The Medic gave Cecil a shot of antidote, in case his wound was infected, then gave him a shot of morphine to put him to sleep. The wound was deep and the medic called for the Nurse to bring in some specialist equiptment. Suddenly, there was a commotion from outside.

Sticking his head out of the door, Bane saw two Guards running out of one of the doors on the right there was a burst of gunfire and they both fell. Out of the door came a familiar figure.

It was Biggs. He was holding a chunky 'Assault Rifle' with smoke drifting from the barrel. Behind him came Wedge and Jessie, both armed with pistols, and with several grenades and mining charges swinging from their belts. Bane ran to them.

"Hey! You made it!" Said Biggs. "We thought you got stuck back in the mines"

"Yeah, thought we were gonners!" Said Bane. "Oh yeah, I met some more miners and a member of the Red Faction! They're just checking the canteen for hostiles".

At that moment, Barry ran from the canteen, shouting.

"They got The Red faction guy! They're right behind-"

Suddenly, he staggered forward as he was hit by several bullets. He fell, revealing six guards entering the Room. Each guard was holding a pistol. Biggs opened up, spraying the troops with bullets. Three were sent tumbling backwards. The other three franticly reloaded their pistols, and then they were cut down by the next volley of assault rifle shots.

The Group headed back towards the Medical bay to check on how Cecil was doing, but before they entered, they heard the sound of shouting from the room next to it, marked 'Detention Cell'

"Mine Scum! You're gonna pay for what your people did to my mates!" There were several crunching noises and a few shots. Then silence. They approached the door, guns drawn.

Inside was a room. Two corners of it were closed off by chain-link fence. Emerging from one of them was a Riot Guard. In his right hand, he held a blood stained Control baton. In the other, he was holding a pistol. In the cell behind him were 3 dead miners. They were all covered in blood. The sight of it made Bane sick. He raised his shotgun and fired before the man had even got out of the cell. He staggered backward, and then raised his pistol. Biggs and Wedge Fired at exactly the same time. Wedge's shot hit the man in the head; Biggs' assault rifle riddled his chest with holes. He collapsed in a heap. After looting his ammo and control baton batteries, Bane checked out the other cell.

Inside was a Miner. His envirosuit was gone, and instead, he was wearing a simple red vest and shorts. He was black, with dreadlocks. He turned to look at Bane. When he spoke, he sounded Jamaican.

"Yo, my miner Blederen! Be me mate and get de key off de table and free me." He said.

"Well, what are you locked up here for? We don't want a psycho attacking us when we open the door." Muttered Bane.

"Ah! Well what appened was dat de guards caught me sellin 'Illegal Substences' to de other miners!" He replied.

"Fair enough, I'll let you out. Do you want to join us, we're gonna steal a Shuttle and escape Mars."

"Okay, I will join you. I wanna get some payback on dem guards who stole me stuff!"

Bane looked around and saw a small table beside the door. On it was a key card. Bane took the key card and slid it through the swipe-slot that was clamped to the door of the cell. The light on the slot turned green and the door swung open. The Man strutted out and went to a locker on the wall. He opened it and pulled out an envirosuit. The man put this on, then stomped over to Bane.

"Hey, tank you man! You have freed me from me cell. Me name's Rasputin!" He said.

"No problem, I'm Bane." Bane answered. Then he drew his pistol and held it out. "Here, you'll be needing this."

Back in the Main entrance for the barracks, the team checked their ammunition. they were all pretty low, so they switched to control batons and pistols. The only room that they hadn't been in was the canteen. so they crossed to the door and went in.

Inside, there was a lot of dull, metalic furnature. most of it had been overturned and among it lay several dead miners. The group spread out and checked the bodies. Some had shotguns with ammo, but most were just holding mining tools or control batons. At the other end of the room, there was a door, next to a serving hatch. Bane left the others to check the bodies and approached it. It was locked from the inside, but a few hits with the stock of his shotgun broke it open.

Inside, the room was quite dark. Bane was just ajusting to the darkness, when a bright light was shone in his face.

"Hands up, Ultor guard!" Said a jumpy female voice. There was the sound of an assault rifle having the safety switched off. He raised his hands.

"Hey, cool it, I'm another miner" Said Bane, calmly. The lights flickered on, to reveal a young female miner crouched behind a barracade of broken chairs and kitchen units. She was holding an assault rifle in her shaking hands.

"Oh, you _are_ another miner" She said. "Well, what is it you need?"

"Well, my friends and I are kinda low on ammo." He muttered.

"Oh, really? I got plenty here." She moved aside to reveal two crates with the Ultor logo on. She pulled the lid off the nearest one and began chucking boxes of ammo to Bane.

"Wanna come with us? We're trying to get off Mars" Asked Bane.

"Well, I'm scared to come out...But I will help any passing Miners to reload here" Said the woman. "You should get moving, the last load of miners that came by will be almost at the Docking bay by now." Bane thanked her, then left the room, and began to hand out ammo to his friends.

They left the Canteen, then went to the medical bay, and found Cecil wide awake. He grabbed his shotgun and took a few shells for it from Bane. Then the six of them set off. They went through the large door at the other end of the room, and found themselves in a long coridoor, with a door at the end and another door to their right. Bane checked the room behind the door, but it was just an empty office. They went to the end of the corridoor and opened the door.

The door led out onto some sort of station. They had only been here once before; When they first came to Mars, they had been brought here by train. The group stood on the platform, waiting. Eventually, a train appeared. It wasn't really a train, just a locomotive with a passanger compartment. The train pulled up at the station and the door on the very front opened. A riot guard appeared in the doorway, another following close behind. The first guard seemed surprised, and the team took that moment to open fire. Rasputin and Wedge fired shot after shot from their pistols and Biggs fired a concertrated burst from his Assault rifle. The man swayed, then fell forwards, onto the platform. The second Riot Guard stepped forward, Shotgun raised. Jessie hurled a remote charge, which stuck to the trooper's arm. He stared at it for a second, then ran away screaming. Jessie counted to ten, then pressed the detonator. From somewhere close by, there came the dull crump of an explosion and the squealing stopped. Insied the driver's cab, the surprised looking technition raised his hands. They hauled him out of the cab, and onto the railway. Then Wedge and Jessie climbed into the Driver's seats and Biggs, Cecil, Rasputin and Bane got into the back. It looked just like a tube train back on earth: With seats opposite each other in the carrage. They all sat down. Rasputin Hulstered his pistol, Cecil and Bane hooked their shotguns in the umbrella rack and Biggs fell asleep, his Assault Rifle nestling in his lap. Wedge's voice came over the Train's speakers.

_"Okay people, we're locked in. Jessie's just reprogramming the computer so that it'll take us to the Surface Station without stopping at every station."_

The train jerked forward, then began to move more smoothely.

They began to nodd off and would've fallen asleep, if the computer hadn't began to squalk the alarm again.

_Alert! Miners in tram area, heading towards surface station. Guards are to intercept and destroy. Repeat: This is a code Red Alert!" _It barked.

"Hey, I tink I can hear someting comin dis way!" Rasputin said, suddenly. Bane got up and crossed to the window. Behind them was another tram. As it came towards them, a side door opened and a Riot Guard walked out onto a tiny Balcony. He reached back inside and pulled out a large green Tube. He slotted it into place on his shoulder. Then Bane realised what it was.

"Get down!" He yelled. They all dropped to the ground and a huge explosion rocked the Tram. The entire back wall was blown in and every window shattered. The rag-tag group were all being pulled towards the hole by the speed of the Tram. Through the new hole in the wall, Bane saw the guard sliding a fresh missile into his Fusion rocket launcher. As he raised it to his shoulder once more, Rasputin managed to find a handhold and tug his pistol out. He fired and the bullet (traveling at twice the speed because of the motion of the trams) smacked into the visor of the Riot helmet. The man toppled over the rail and was whipped away by the wind. Another Riot Guard ran out onto the balcony and opened fire with his shotgun. Cecil Cried out as he was hit and fell from the Train.

"Cecil! No! Damn you, you-" Shouted Bane. Suddenly, the rack with the shotguns on came away from the wall. He snatched up his own shotgun and fired. The windscreen of the enemy tram shattered and the two figures inside went flying backwards. The Enemy Tram began to loose speed and a screeching noise came fom the underside. Bane fired again and again. The front grille of the vehicle swisted off and went flying. He fired again, setting of the fuel canisters inside the slot. The Tram exploded in a huge ball of flame.

Their tram Began to slow down about ten minutes later. Wedge and Jessie said that they had reached the surface part of the complex. The side door of the Tram slid open and the group hopped out onto the platform.

They saw that this platform was much better looking than the one they had first seen. The floor was tiled and the Walls were covered in posters, advertsing Ultor Mining courp. On the platform were two Security Guards. They weren't Riot guards or Mine Guards, they were wearing smart blue uniforms and High, black boots. On their heads were peaked caps and they wore sunglasses. Each was holding a stubby Submachine gun. As the door opened, they cocked their weapons.

"Look out! More miners!" Yelled the first. Biggs nailed them with his Assault rifle before they could raise the allarm.

"Right, this is the surface base. We don't want anyone raising the allarm, or security will be all over us. According to the Tram's map, we need to actually go out onto the planet's surface and travel about a mile to get to the docking bay." Said Jessie. Bane led them to the double doors at the other end of the platform, Wedge and Rasputin paused to take the Submachine guns from the dead guards. They went through the doors, into a large corridoor, in it were three Executives, hurrying towards the lift. They hid in a doorway until the Execs had gone, then pressed on. In the next corridoor, there was a large Steel door, with one security guard on either side. The door was marked 'Experimenting room'. They rushed the Security guards and killed them with a few well-placed blows from gun-handles. They trudged across the purple carpet to look in through the window. Inside, was a scene that shocked Bane. There were men in white coats, wearing masks pushing around trollies. The trollies had miners on them. Except, they weren't miners. The creatures on the trollies were still wearing the miners suits, but without the helmets. Their exposed faces were purple, like when a miner caught the plauge, and stretched, like putty. There was one other thing. They were alive. Their chests rose and fell, erratically.

Beside the horrified Bane, one of the guards groaned and clutched his head. Bane grabbed him by the wrist and pushed the barrel of his shotgun against the man's head.

"What is wrong with those miners?" He snarled.

"They..Have the plague..." He groaned "I heard...something about the plague...being man-made, to...test on the most expen...dable people...you miners..."

"Man made!" Muttered Bane.

"I..I dunno...it was just a...rumour..."

Biggs grabbed his arm.

"We can report this to the Earth defence force when we get back. Right now, we need to keep moving. We'll be discovered if we stay here too long."

"Okay, let's keep moving" Said Bane. They left the guard with his headache and continued down the coridoor. They finally came to a Door saying 'Exit Airlock' on it. They put their helmets on and opened the door. Inside, there were three dead security guards and a miner, holding a Submachine gun. They entered an shut the door behind them. The air began to cycle in and the miner approached them.

_"Are you guys the last of the miners coming?" _His voice crackled on their helmet intercoms.

"Yeah, think so. We didn't see anyone else on our way up here" Replied Bane. There was a 'Ping!' noise and the light on the wall turned green. Bane quickly replaced his helmet. There was a hiss of hydrolics and the outer door slid open.

_"Follow me, There's a transport waiting to take you to the Docking Bay." _Crackled the man's voice. He set off at a jog, out of the airlock.

The Surface of Mars felt weird. There was a lot of gravity, so you felt as though you were carrying a heavy backpack all the time. Other than that, it was similar to any desert on Earth.

They were in a gully, about a hundred metres wide. They proceded on foot to a large rock formation.

Behind it were Three Jeeps. In each was a miner, sat behind the wheel. Apart from the driver's seat, there was a passanger's seat and a heavy-machine-gun turret on the back with a seat for the gunner. Wedge and Jessie got in one, Bane and Rasputin got in another and Biggs and the miner from the airlock clambered in the Third. Jessie, Bane and The Miner were sat in the gunners seats. Then, in a cloud of dust, they set off.

As they neared the Bulky Docking Bay, they saw a croud of Mine Guards, wearing envirosuits emerge from several caves in the cliffs. They swarmed down and open fire on the Jeeps. Bane gripped the handles on his Heavy-machine-gun and pressed the red buttons. There was a roaring noise and the whole jeep shook as a burst of explosive rounds were sent whizzing towards the enemies. They drove through the men, Firing as they went. Bane saw a guard about to throw a grenade. He Fired on full automatic, killing him and sending the grenade rolling across into another guard. A third guard brought a missile launcher to bear. The man jerked back, sending a missile streaking towards Bane's Jeep. It just missed, but the second missile hit the Jeep with Biggs in directly. The Jeep exploded in an orange fireball and a shower of metal. The remaining two jeeps ploughed through the last few enemy troops and Bane made sure his ran over the man with the missile launcher. They reached the Docking bay and skidded to a halt. Bane and his driver deployed covering fire while the other three and the driver from the other jeep sprinted to the door of the Building.

Bane's driver shuddered and stopped firing, slumping over the dashboard as he was hit by a spray of lead from a shotgun. Bane Fired a last burst from the turret, then leapt down and followed the others inside the Docking bay.

They waited anxiously inside the airlock for the air to filter, then ran through the door. They were inside a coridoor of som kind. Bane could hear Gunfire and screams from the door straight ahead. They pushed it open, revealing an iron walkway. The walkway looked down on a large hanger. There was one bulky Shuttle left in the hanger. The other ships had all been destroyed in the fight. There was an enourmous battle going on in the hanger. There were about Fifty Guards attacking around Thirty-five Miners. The miners had formed a ring around the Shuttle and were crouched behind crates and workbenches. Gunfire flickered back and forth between the two sides. Bane urged the others on, across the walkway to the ramp that lead down to the floor.. He was about to follow them when he noticed the corpse of a Guard, draped over the hand-rail. He ran forward and picked up the Sniper rifle that the guard had dropped, picked a spot and braced the weapon against his shoulder.

Through the scope, he saw a guard running forward, several explosives clutched in his arms. He fired and the man fell. Bane turned the rifle and saw a guard with a Fusion rocket launcher, taking aim at the Shuttle. If the shuttle was destroyed, there would be no escape from Mars, and they would all die! He took aim and shot the guard in the arm. The man howled and swung his arm, discharging the weapon in the other direction. The resulting explosion killed at least ten guards. He carried on. Hunting, aiming, firing. He saw an Officer trying to rally his Guards. Bane pulled the trigger and realised that he was out of ammo.

He Ducked down and found a fresh clip next to the dead guard. He reloaded and stood, but by then, it was all over. The miners had won, but at a cost. Counting Bane and his gang, there were Fifteen miners left. Dropping the sniper rifle, he hurried to the ramp and sprinted down it. The miners had got the back of the Shuttle open and they were walking up it, some were supporting injured friends. He met Rasputin, Jessie and Wedge at the bottom of the ramp. Together, they hurried up the ramp. It retracted, once they were up and the large doors at the back slid shut. Two miners ran through the door at the other end, into the Driver's compartment. The rest all slumped into the padded seats. The Shuttle was About the size of a single-decker bus. Wedge sat right at the front, Jessie was a few rows behind him. Rasputin was sat near Wedge and Bane sat right at the back.

The Shuttle began to shudder, and Bane watched through the roof window as the entire top of the Hanger Slid open. With one final Jerk, the Shuttle took off and soared up through the Hole. The driver's voice crackled through the intercom.

_"Ladies and Gentlemen. We can't leave the atmosphere just yet, we have to keep our position and travel round for about 5 hours until we're in the right position to set a course for Earth. You should relax for now, there's nothing else we can do."_

Relax, thought Bane, how nice.

Bane dropped off into a troubled sleep. He dreamed about his friends. All the Miners who had died to get him here. He was just glad that he was going home. He was never going back to that planet of Hell...


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Hey, wedge here. I hope SOMEONE has read my first chapter... I spent ages on it. I don't mind what people think, i just want people to read it and enjoy it if they can. Please review and i'll write more if i get good reviews.

**Chapter two**

Bane woke up. The intercom was crackling and the other miners were rubbing their eyes, sleepily.

_"Rise and shine people, we're almost at the position where we can enter the atmosphere. Fasten your seatbelts! We're in for a bumpy ride!"_

Bane pulled across his seatbelt and secured it across his belly and looked out of the window. The Shuttle was flying over another Ultor Mining Complex. The intercom spoke again.

_"Okay, people, We're in position. Our jets will kick in, in 5, 4, 3, 2-" _At that moment, there was a loud bang, and the Shuttle shook. All of the front windows shattered.

Bane tasted blood. He opened his eyes, realising he had lost consiousness for a few seconds. Alarms had begun to sound and about four miners were limply hanging foward in their seats. He looked towards the Pilot's bay, but the doorframe was jammed with bits of metal and glass. He could see a human arm poking out from the debree. Bane could hear the wind rushing past the window. A computerised voice crackled from the speakers.

_"Warning, altitude loss. All Passangers prepare for crash landing." _It droanedThe sound of rushing wind grew louder, then, with a loud crunching noise, Bane's world went black.

Bane awoke with a terrible headache. He sat up, his vision was blurred and out of proportion. He blinked a few times and the world swam back into focus. He was sitting up on a clifftop the surface of Mars. By some miracle, his envirosuit has survived the crash without ripping, although it was a bit tattered. He saw a plume of smoke rising from the foot of the cliff. He crawled over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. The shuttle sat there, it's nose embedded in a cliff opposite, it's tail end was sticking out about a metre above the ground, towards him. A few bodies lay sprawled on the ground behind it, like an ugly tail.

Bane howled to the moon, He had almost escaped of the jaws of hell, and now he was in it's belly. He howled silently, because on Mars, nobody can hear you scream.

Bane was going to survive, he decided. If he couldn't escape, then he'd survive. He'd hooked his weapons on a rack when he'd borded the Shuttle so he needed some new ones. He survayed the area. There were two dead miners on the clifftop, with him.

"It's a start" He muttered to himself. He found a section of the ship's interior wall lying next to him, with a field medikit strapped to it. He took the medikit and buckled it to his belt. He then found an envirosuit repear kit among the fallout. He quickly patched up his tattered suit with this. Bane finally crawled to the dead miners. One had a shotgun strapped to her back and a few shells in her pockets. The other had two remote charges and a detonator in a pouch on his ripped envirosuit. Bane took all of this. He then clambered to his feet. The clifftop was about a hundred metres square. He didn't see how he was going to get down. He wandered over to the edge, where the shuttle must have clipped the cliff and sent him and the two unfortunates tumbling out, and looked over the edge. Something glinting caught his attention. It was a ventalation grill, set vertically into the rock below his feet. He swung down and, hanging by his hands, aimed a kick at it. The Grill was pretty rusty so it gave way easily. Bane let go of the rock and dropped, grabbing the edge of the grille just in time. He hauled himself up and scrambled inside.

The shaft was lit by the light pouring in from the smashed grill. As Bane paused for a breather, he heard a low whistling noise. Looking outside, he saw two Ultor 'Arsir' fighters fly up to the wreckage of the shuttle, pause and scour the area for survivors, then fly off again. He began to crawl forward, down the shaft, when the small speaker in his helmet clicked on.

_"Bane, if you can hear me, my name is Orion. Aside from Eos, I'm the highest ranking member of the Red Faction. I have been monotoring your progress through your helmet camera ever since you survived the riot in mine sector M-3. You can't talk back unfortunately, but you can recieve messages from me." _Said a quiet, male voice. _"The Ventilation shaft you're in leads to the Miner Barracks in Mine M-7. It is still Ultor-held, the riot there failed, but the guards are pretty worn out from the fighting last night and there are hardly any left. You should be able to punch through. If you can get through into the mines, I'll direct you to the Red Faction base."_

Bane wished he could speak back but decided that he should focus on the task in hand. He continued on through the Ventilation system, and arrived at a reinforced grill. Through it, Bane could see a metal room with four small beds and an array of surgical equiptment. He seemed to be in the Medical bay. He punched the grille open. And toppled out. The medic didn't seem at all surprised to have a blood-stained miner come toppling out of the ventilation shaft.

"I'd hide if I were you, the guard is coming in here to do his rounds in two minutes. There's a large locker at the back of the room." He said, without looking up from his notes. Bane ran to the locker and stepped in, shutting the door so there was just a crack of an opening. At that moment, there was a hiss as the door slid up and open, and a Riot guard walked in. He stood, talking to the medic for about a minute, then left. Bane opened the locker and stepped out. As he did so, the door opened again and the guard hurried back in.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you, if you're late with the report again, I'll Kill you!" He growled at the medic. Then he saw Bane. Bane brought his shotgun to bear and pulled the trigger. The Riot guard staggared back, then he turned and smashed his fist against the alarm button on the wall. A siren started wailing and the computerised voice announced:

_"Alarm! Emergency in medical room. Barracks guards respond." _

Bane fired again and the enemy guard slammed into the wall and slid down to the floor. The door opened and two guards wearing envirosuits ran in. They raised their submachine guns. Bane aimed his shotgun between then and fired, sending them flying backwards. He reloaded and fired again, at an envirosuited guard runnning from across the hall. The man dived to the ground, did a dive roll and came up firing. Then he was down too. Bane stepped out into the wide entrance hall, searching for another target. The door to the toilet opened and a Riot guard walked out, whistling. When he saw Bane, standing next to the dead guards, He began to draw his pistol. Bane Fired twice, killing the Soldier, then his Shotgun clacked. It was empty. Bane Strode over to the dead envirosuited guards, and stole a Submachine gun and a few clips of ammo. The Guards didn't seem to carry much ammo around with them, so he took the clips from their guns. He put his shotgun on his back by it's strap and held the submachine gun. He also went to the Riot guards and pilfered their pistols and the small amount of rounds they were carrying, and a control baton. Now rearmed, and more confident, Bane set off towards the Double doors with the Ultor logo on, at the end of the entrance hall.

As Bane stood in the airlock, waiting for the air to cycle, The Helmet intercom clicked on again.

_"Nice work in the Barracks. Be careful in the mines, though. They've got riot guards running around, looking for surviving miners hiding down there. When you get out of the airlock, there is a long corridoor that branches off three ways at the end. Just keep going straight. Follow that tunnel and stop when I tell you" _Said Orion's voice.

The Door finally opened and Bane walked out. This place had seen some heavy fighting. There were some dead bodies, in envirosuits, lying sprawled on the Mine floor, and the wall was blanketed with bullet holes and the odd dried bloodstain. He reached the junction and was about to keep moving, when a hail of gunfire exploded around him. He dived for cover, back into the tunnel, and peeped round the corner. He saw a sandbag nest. There was some kind of tripod mounted gun position inside it, with an envirosuited guard operating it. That was all he got to see, because as soon as Bane had taken this in, another burst of gunfire hammered into the wall around his head and forced him to duck into cover again. He was about to give up and turn back, when he remembered the Mining Charges that were hanging from his belt. He took one and hurled it round the corner. It stuck to the top of the sandbag wall. Bane pressed the detonator and the charge exploded. He heard the crump of an explosion and then silence.

Bane crossed to the central tunnel again and started down it. At the other end was a single door. It had the words 'Water Monitoring Bay' printed on it in large, white letters. Bane heard footsteps and shouting from behind him. Looking round, he saw three Riot Guards sprinting towards him, brandishing control batons. He brought up his submachine gun and fired on full automatic and, one by one, they toppled to the floor. His clip only had two shots left, so he twisted it out and slammed a new one into place. As he caught his breath, he let the weapon dangle from it's strap. The door behind him opened and a guard wearing an envirosuit stepped out, cautiously. Bane spun round, drawing his baton, and cracked the electrified weapon across the guard's face. He fell backwards onto the ground. As he put the control baton back in his pocket, Orion spoke again through the radio.

_"Bane, go into the Water monitoring bay. I've sent someone to collect you there. Defend the room until they arrive."_

Bane entered the door, and found himself in another airlock. The air filtered and, after a moment, the light on the door turned green and a buzzer sounded. He left through the other door and looked around. He was in a round, metal room. He was standing on a platform and below was a large pool of water. The platform was a grill of about 3 metres from the wall inwards, and it ran around the whole room. On the platform, there were several large computers, which hummed, ominously. There was a long, steel bridge that crossed from the door side to the other side of the room. There were four other people in the room. They wore white lab-coats over green, or blue shirts. As he entered, they stood, frozen to the spot.

"Okay, listen, just leave quietly. I have no fight with-" Began Bane. Then one of the scientists made a run for the alarm button on the wall. Bane but a burst from his submachine gun into the man. The others did as Bane had said, and moved towards the door. When they reached it, however, it sprung open and a riot guard marched in, riot shotgun raised. He fired, missing Bane and killing two of the scientists. Bane Riddled him with bullets, but even as he fell, two more sprang through the door. They fired their pistols, the first shot pinged off the bridge behind Bane, the second tore into the miner's left forearm. The first guard shot him again, grazing his shoulder. Bane gritted his teeth and hozed them with bullets, cutting them down. He staggared backwards, across the bridge, and tipped over a desk, giving him some cover. He heard the buzz from the door, and then the airlock opened. Six riot guards piled out, looking around for a target. One of them spotted the last remaining scientist and, thinking the poor man was Bane, shot him with his riot shotgun. Bane leapt to his feet, cutting down two in a hail of gunfire. A third attempted to rush him with a control baton. Bane shot him at close range and sent him toppling off the platform, into the water. The other three opened fire with their pistols and shotgun, forcing Bane to dive behind his table again, and peppering the piece of furnature with holes. He pulled out the empty submachine gun clip and tossed it away, slamming a new one into place. Then, standing up, fired on full automatic. The first man, wielding a shotgun, was hit with the full brunt of the shots. The other riot guards two attempted to flank Bane. Our hero turned and picked the second off with two short bursts of gunfire. His clip was empty again so, with no time to reload it (the last man was almost right next to him) he slung the weapon over his shoulder and drew his stolen Control baton. He swung the weapon at the Riot guard, who ducked and jabbed Bane with the powered truncheon. Bane felt a surge of electricity course through his torso. He staggered backwards, reeling from the attack. The Riot guard lunged again, But this time, Bane was ready, he swung his own Baton with all the strength left in his arms. His assailant staggered backwards, and Bane drew his pistol and fired it at the guard. Three shots at close range were enough to penitrate his armour. The man fell, dead.

Bane reloaded his Submachine gun and took the moment of calm to apply his Medikit and staunch the bleeding from his left arm. He then went round and collected all the pistol ammo and a few shotgun shells. He hooked the Submachine gun over his shoulder and pulled out his shotgun, aiming it at the door, and waited.

About three minutes later, Bane heard a whooshing noise. He looked down and saw the water below was bubbling and frothing. Then, without warning, a large, metalic shape rose from the water. It was about the size of a small car. It had a large front cab and a square body. Set into the back were two large propellers. The submarine bobbed there for a moment, then a metre square section of the top sank down an inch and slid away. Bane aimed his shotgun and was about to open fire, when a miner appeared in the hatch.

"Well?" He asked. "Are you getting in, or are you going to sit there all day?"

It was very cramped inside the submarine. The cab only had one seat, and there was only just enough room for two people to sit in the back. At the very back was a ladder, leading up to the hatch and a couple of lockers. The miner who had spoken to him sat in one of the seats in the back and through the doorway Bane could see another miner operating the submarine's controls. Bane took a look round. In one of the lockers at the back, Bane found a envirosuit repear kit. The other was empty.

"Okay, buckle in, we're going!" shouted the driver. On one of the screens, Bane saw several guards in envirosuits charging out of the airlock doors, holding Submachine guns. The driver pressed a button marked 'D' and there was a rumbling noise. Bane saw, through the portholes, they were diving.

They began to move along the bottom of the pool of water. Then they came to an underwater tunnel. The submarine zipped inside and followed it along for a few minutes, then turned down another, wider tunnel. Bane spoke to the miner opposite him and learned that he had missed the shuttle flight off mars, so he had joined the red faction. He introduced himself as Vicks. Their driver told him her name was Ace.

After about half an hour, Ace broke the silence.

"Incoming radio transmittion" She muttered. The intercom clicked on:

_"Aha! Bane, you managed to survive. I'm impressed. Our team got held up in a firefight and I was afraid they wouldn't make it." _Boomed the voice of Orion _"Anyway, I have some bad news, Ace. The tunnel that you used to reach this one on the way here has been sealed. You'll have to surface in an old research building and find the controls for the door to unseal it. Then you can continue in your sub."_

Without a word, Ace checked her map, turned the sub to the right and they were off down another tunnel. However, there was something strange about this one. It was lit from above with old fashioned lighting, though most of it was off or flickering, that seemed to be waterproof. At the end of the tunnel was a massive cavern with a large, concrete building in the water before them. There was a large sign hanging underneath. It read 'Submarine bay'. Ace steered the little sub towards the sign.

The sub came up in a round room. It had concrete walls and a Large door, marked 'airlock' against the wall. Bane pressed the button on the underside of the hatch, and light flooded in. They all clambered out of the cramped Submarine and sat on the sides.

"Alright. You two guard the sub, I'll find the control room and unseal the door. I'll be back in a few minutes." Said Ace. She dissapeared back inside the sub, then came back up again with a submachine gun in her hands. She walked over to the airlock and the door closed behind her.

Twenty minutes later, she still hadn't returned. Vicks said they should wait for another five minutes. They did so, but there was still no sign of Ace. Eventually, they decided to go and find her. Vicks pulled out a pair of pistols from his belt. He loaded them and approached the airlock. Bane racked his shotgun and followed him.

The air filtered and they exited the airlock, pulling off their helmets and clipping them to their belts. There were two doors ahead of them. there was a sign hanging above the right hand door, but it was rusted and unreadable. They approached it, guns raised.

Inside was some sort of lounge. There was a coffee table and a couple of sofas. At the back of the room was a TV. It was on, but there was only static, and no sound. There was something wrong with this room, thought Bane. Then he hit on it. There were bloodstains all over the carpet and furnature, and on the the wall were a few bullet holes, as if the defenders only had time to fire a few shots before they were dead. There was also a corpse. It was hard to tell who it had been, there was only bones and a few scraps of skin left, but it was wearing what could have once been a white lab-coat. The scientist had obviously not been killed by bullets. There was a huge sweeping, slash across his ribs and another that had shattered his neck bones.

"Oh my word!" Gasped Vicks "What could have done this?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to meet it. Let's keep moving." Muttered Bane. They left the room through the door that they had used to enter it, and went through the other door instead.

The coridoor was lit by airplane-style lighting, along the floor, on either side of the carpet. They reached the door at the other end and opened it.

They saw Ace immediately. She was lying, dead, on the steel floor of the room. More worrying, however, was the creature crouched next to her, munching on her flesh.

The thing looked up and saw them. It was the size of a dog, with six long, stick insect-like legs, ending in three hooked claws. It's face looked human-ish, but was unnaturally green and shriveled. It had no nose, and it's mouth was full of fangs. The Mutant scuttled across the floor towards them, hissing. Bane and Vicks blew it apart. Two more appeared from under a workstation bolted to the wall. The creatures leapt at the two miners, with an amazing speed. Neither had time to fire, just to dodge. Vicks dived to the floor, but Bane was a bit slow, and a serrated claw cut into his shoulder and slashed along for fifteen centimetres before coming out down his back. The cut was not deep, but it was bleeding, and the things seemed attracted to the smell of blood, as both their heads turned to him. Bane killed them both from a blast from his shotgun. Bane ran to the door and saw about eleven of the monsters were scuttling down the coridoor. Vicks picked himself up and ran to the workstation.

"I can open the sealed tunnel, just keep them off me for a couple of minutes." He shouted to Bane.

Bane fired a few shots from his shotgun at the creatures, but they started to spread out or climb along the walls with their claws, so they were harder to hit with the spray weapon. Bane slung his shotgun over his shoulder and unhooked his submachine gun. He fired on automatic, killing about seven of them. The remaining few leapt at him, screeching. He ducked inside the room again and slammed his fist down on the 'seal door' button, next to the door. The Door slid shut and locked with a hiss of steam. At that moment, it vibrated from several impacts and Bane heard faint growls from the other side.

The room wasn't big: about four metres square. It was bare except for the work-station, with the computer on, and a steel chair. On the wall that the desk was bolted to, there was a large, square window. it looked out into the bleak, murky water outside. Vicks finally straightened up.

"There, the tunnel is open. Let's go." He said. Suddenly, one of the pannels in the celing dropped open and about four of the monsters scuttled out, moving so fast they were a blur. One leaped down and landed on Vicks. The man screamed and fell as the creature slashed at him.

"Vicks!" Shouted Bane. He shot the creature that was on his friend, but two more leapt down, and another landed on Bane, knocking his aim. Bane struggled with the thing and managed to throw it off, before it could impale him on its claws. He shot it while it tried to get up, then turned to Vicks. The man was gone, but Bane could still hear his screams, from above. Bane looked up and saw that blood was smeared around the ventilation shaft. The screams finally stopped. Replaced with the noise of scuttling feet.

The remaining two monsters appeared again in the hatch, claws dripping with blood. Bane swore and shot them both with his Submachine gun. Silence fell over the base.

Back down in the submarine bay, Bane climbed into the small sub and sat in the pilot's seat. The controlls were remarkably simple: Just a joystick, an accelerator pedal, a button marked 'D' and a small Red button on the top of the joystick, with a cap over it to stop people pressing it by accident. He had met a couple more of the things on the way back down, but had killed them easily. He pressed 'D' and the small Sub sank below the water. At that moment, Bane saw something else that was wierd. The underwater cave had many, small holes bored into the walls, they were circular, about a metre diameter. They were dotted around the cave, like giant bullet holes. There were about ten of them. Bane let the submarine float in front of one of the holes, the powerful lamps shining in. It went in quite deep, he couldn't see right to the end. Bane turned the Sub and continued to the other end of the cavern. Suddenly, he saw something shoot out of one of the holes. It looked like a small dolphin, except instead of a bottle-nose, it had a large, round beak. It opened it's Beak and made a noise. Bane couldn't hear it, but the submarine shook. A warning light flashed on above his head. Bane flipped open the plastic cap and pushed the button. A small torpedo streaked out in front of him, venting bubbles. It hit the creature head on, and in a flash of light, it was gone and the water around it was stained red. He pressed on, as more of the monsters emerged from the other holes.

They were chasing him, he could see them in the rear-view screens. Some released more sound-blasts at him, damaging the sub. However, when he got out of the Cavern and entrance shaft, they turned and headed back. He sighed and pressed onward, back into the main underwater tunnel and then through a smaller, empty cavern. The tunnel on the other side had a large slot running around it, which looked as though it was a doorframe. The door was open though, and he steered through it. The tunnel beyond was also lit, but these lights looked well maintained and new. It ran for a hundred metres or so, then ended abruptly. He checked above and found that the tunnel went straight up. Bane put the sub to rise, then a transmission broke the silence of the vehicle.

_"Hello again, Bane. I hope you are alright. You're heading up into our base. I've sent a squad down to meet you."_ Crackled Orion's voice.

The little Submarine surfaced and Bane opened the hatch, sending light spilling into the cramped room. He poked his head out, into the well lit room beyond.

Three guns clicked as they were loaded. Bane saw that three miners were standing on a platform above him. Each held a shotgun. Guess where they were pointed.

"Who are you?" Shouted down one of the men.

"Relax, I'm Bane, a miner."

The men almost colapsed with relief. They lowered their weapons.

"We have spent the entire day trying to get you here, to HQ. You're finally here!" Shouted one, joyfully. "You see, there are a few natural survivors, like you, wandering around, killing the guards. Red faction needs three things. One; to replace the members that it lost during the Rioting, Two; Skilled people, like you, and Three; To overthrow Ultor. Welcome on board, Bane."

They took him through an airlock, into a lift. The machine took the four of them up, into a long coridoor. Men and women in miners envirosuits or labcoats were hurrying around, and in and out of doorways, some carrying guns. He was taken to a door at the far right end of the coridoor, which opened onto a large room, full of desks and workstations. Wires hung from the ceiling and piping protruded from the walls. Tired-looking miners and a few technitians were seated at the machines, most had cigerettes dangling from their mouths. The air was thick with, and stank of, smoke. Standind in the centre of it all was a woman. She wore a miners invirosuit, that was yellow for some reason, but on her head was a wierd mask thing that covered half her face with a reflective visor, while leaving the other half in the open. She was obviously in charge, because she was barking orders at the overworked looking computer technitians. The men marched Bane over to one of the terminals. There were two people sat at the desk. One was a woman, typing furiously at the keyboard. The other was a man, wearing a set of earphones with a microphone attached. He turned and grinned at Bane.

"Hi, I'm Orion" He laughed. "Good to meet you in person at last. We've followed your progress all the way to this room!" Bane could see the view from his helmet camera was on the screen by Orion. Suddenly, the chair with the woman in spun round and Bane saw who it was.

"Hey Bane, so you managed to survive, I see!" Laughed Jessie. "Wedge is helping out in the medical bay." Bane grinned.

"Jessie? and Wedge? How'd you survive?" laughed Bane.

"Well, Like Ultor, Red faction sent out a search party to check for survivors. They got to the crash-site before the fighters and brought us back here. We looked for you, but you weren't there." She said.

"What about Rasputin?" Asked Bane. Jessie sighed.

"Yeah, he was alive too, but he was badly hurt in the crash. He broke his spine in three places and a rib got cracked. He had massive internal bleeding and a perforated lung. By some miracle, we got him back here and managed to stabalise him. But the medics are still working on him." Bane turned to Orion.

"Well, what should I do now?" He asked.

"First of all, you need rest. You've had no sleep for about twenty-four hours. Then you can come and see me for a mission tomorrow. You'll have to find your own way to the sleeping quarters." Orion yawned, rubbing his eyes. Bane left, back into the coridoor. He went down the coridoor and stopped at one of the many doors. It opened onto a room full of steel bunks. They were draped with large, thick blankets. They looked much more inviting than the bare, grafiti-scrawled equivlients that Ultor used. First, Bane had a shower in the room at the other end of the Barracks. It hurt when he took of the envirosuit, because some fibres were caught in the cut down his back. He had a quick shower and changed into a fresh envirosuit. He then went down to the medical bay.

Rasputin lay in a bed, his skin was a very pale colour. His eyes were closed. Two doctors and a nurse were walking around his bed, carrying various surgical impliments or syringes. Bane stood by his bed, waiting for something to happen. Eventually a doctor came over and offered to take a look at the wound. Bane sat on a bed and watched as the doctor gave him a shot of painkiller and then set to work with the disinfectand, then the stiches.

Bane got up a few minutes later. He saw Wedge walking over with a tray of food. Bane chatted with Wedge for a while, and asked about the strange mutants with six legs. Wedge frowned.

"I've heard of them, yes. Apparantly, Doctor Capek, Head scientist on Mars, has been making them. He is insane, literally!" He Said "The Red Faction have met a few different types of mutants. The Ones you have met are called Reapers. The fishy ones are codenamed Divers. There are a couple more, but you wont know any of them."

Bane ate the food, then he left the medical bay and went back to the barracks. He couldn't be bothered to change out of the envirosuit. He just slept in his clothes.

The next morning, he was woken by the sound of footsteps walking down the barracks. He sat up and saw Wedge handing out food to the tired miners. When Wedge reached him, he handed him a plate, stacked high with toast, and then nodded at the food.

"You'd better eat that fast. You'll be needing your strength, HQ want you to do a mission, so you're wanted in the room you went in yesterday." He said, then he walked on down the rows of bunks.

Ten minutes later, Bane was stood in the control room. Orion greeted him and pointed to Eos, who was standing in the center of the room, again, still giving orders to the exhausted technitians.

"She wants to talk to you. Hurry up!" Whispered Orion. Bane jogged over to the leader of the red faction. She looked up as he approached.

"Ah, Bane isn't it? We have a little job for you." She said, in a gravelly voice. Eos showed Bane some footage of a man in a red envirosuit running down a rocky tunnel. Every now and then, the miner would stop and dispatch a guard or two who tried to stop him.

"That is Parker, my top man in the field. I need to get to him and help him dispatch a certain guy."

"Who's the target" Asked Bane.

"The man who created the plague and Ultor's chief scientist on mars. Doctor Capek." Eos spat the name like it was a disgusting substance. "Anyway, I need to get there, and because you are the only skilled person in this base who isn't injured or exhausted, you will be taking me there."

After the lecture, Bane ran to the door marked 'Armoury' and went in. The room was as big as a dinner hall. There was one long central table piled with guns and ammo clips and there were room length metal shelves with crates of spare ammo and explosives.

He quickly collected some ammo for his weapons, an earpiece with an attached microphone and then took four grenades and slipped them into his pockets. he was about to leave, when something caught his eye. He went to the weapon table and picked up a small gun, about the size of a submachine gun. Instead of an ammo clip, it had a fist-sized tank with a skull-and-crossbones on it. He squeezed the trigger and grinned as a small spurt of flame gushed from the barrel. He couldn't carry all the guns he had so he left the submachine gun on the table and hooked the flamer to his belt.

Outside, Bane met Eos and another miner coming the other way. The miner was big and musclular. He was holding an assault rifle and had several belts of ammo strapped across his chest. Eos appeared to be travelling light. She was wearing her yellow envirosuit, except it had a helmet now, and had a pistol in it's hulster strapped to her leg.

"There you are, come on, this way." Said the miner. The trio headed to a lift, but headed down instead of up.

"Where are we going?" Asked Bane.

"Vehicle storage." Said the miner.

The lift dropped them in a vast room the size of a hanger. In fact, it probably had been a hanger before the Red Faction liberated it from Ultor. Bane counted ten jeeps, like the ones that he had used to get to the shuttle bay hours ago, five large APCs and one large driller machine. There were also about ten crane-type-objects hanging from the roof. They were to hold the fighters. However, only two of them were occupied.

The party headed for the nearest Jeep. They climbed in. Bane was on the gun, Eos sat in the passenger seat and the other miner took the wheel. They drove to the large double-doors at the end of the room and they opened, automatically, to let them into a lift that could fit nine APCs. The little vehicle pulled to a stop and Eos got out and ran to a small control panel on the wall. A moment later, the doors shut and Bane felt the giant lift begin to move up. He was on his first mission for the Red Faction. The question was, would he make it out alive?


End file.
